The Catholic Solution to a Social and Political Problem

July 13, 2016

We all have political and social questions. In the presidential elections we have every four years, different individuals offer different solutions to these problems. This is no different in the race they are in right now. Many of these solutions range from the good to the bad to the ugly with respect to the most important issues we care about: economic and political concerns, faith, family, work, our children, morality, and many other things. Regardless of which politicians are up for election and/or re-election, regardless of what solutions they offer, there is a common and dangerous folly that many, including myself, fall into. This foolishness of looking for a “Political Messiah” as has been pointed out in a recent article published by Professor John Médaille. Médaille makes the following observations:

the mistake is simply this: to confuse the kingdom of God with the kingdoms of men … hoping for a political messiah who will bring hope and change; will make America great again, will restore our former glory, a glory that glows more brightly in the imagination than it ever did in reality…. We are looking for candidates to restore American greatness by political means—that is, by means of power—alone. And there are many willing to fulfill this role.1

This is a brilliant reflection offered by Médaille, and I would like to take the liberty to propose a solution to the political and social problem of seeking out a “political messiah”. It is a solution that is not just another economic, political, or cultural answer. It is above all a moral and religious one, a solution that I offer to any Catholic and to the people of good will who may be reading this. This is the Christian answer to political, economic and social problems, one that has taken the name of “Christian Democracy” or in other, more popular venues, “Catholic Action”.

Christian Democracy, by the fact that it is Christian, is built, and necessarily so, on the basic principles of divine faith, and it must provide better conditions for the masses, with the ulterior object of promoting the perfection of souls made for things eternal. Hence, for Christian Democracy, justice is sacred; it must maintain that the right of acquiring and possessing property cannot be impugned, and it must safeguard the various distinctions and degrees which are indispensable in every well-ordered commonwealth. Finally, it must endeavor to preserve in every human society the form and the character which God ever impresses on it.2

Certain principles make up “Christian Democracy” and “Catholic Action”, respectively. The first as shown by Pope Leo XIII is that it is by its very foundation, based on truly Christian principles, Catholic Action upholds the fundamental belief in Christ and in His Church. Catholic Action flows from the belief that all things begin and end in God. It may then best be described by the quote that was popularized by Pope Saint Pius X; to “renew all things in Christ,” that “Christ may be all and in all.”3 As Christ says, “Behold I make all things new.”4

To achieve this, Catholic Action proposes to bring the Catholic faith to all of society and views the Catholic State as the ideal. These things are done not merely through mere political, economic, or even social means, but above all by spiritual and moral means. It professes above all things, first and foremost, that “all authority comes from God,”5 and states as the Church has often stated in many ways that the Catholic religion, which is the one true religion, as directly revealed by God, should be given full liberality and sole profession by civil society.

Based on the belief that Christ is king, both temporal and spiritual, in our private and public lives, it also affirms that only Christ can be a “Saviour”—not only politically, but spiritually—and that the saving power of Christ first begins within ourselves, in relation to Christ, as he must first be messiah of our own hearts. Once this is done and Christ is allowed to reign within us we take him everywhere we go: to our work, school, the voting booth, the political and public arena, the parish, and nearly everywhere else.

Catholic Action then becomes what it was once meant to be; not merely an individual endeavor, but a social thing. By its very nature it will go about transforming society in a truly Christian way, for example, by promoting the long neglected natural virtue of justice, by which is meant “the obligation to give all according to their due,” or go further and promote the theological and supernatural virtue of Charity, a supernatural love based on the virtue of faith, by which we love our neighbor in relation to our love of God and His love for us.

Catholic Action is the apolitical solution to a political problem. It is the Catholic faith put into social practice.

Catholic Action has always been practiced by the Church by both clergy and laity alike. It has also been practiced in a variety of ways to the benefit of society. This can be seen in the many hospices and hospitals that were created and run by the Church from the medieval ages to our present time. For example, in the great generosity of The Sovereign Military Order of Saint John (also known as the “Hospitallers”) which took care of the various pilgrims who flocked to the Holy Land. Or in the generosity towards the sick and unfortunate by “The Poor Clares” or Blessed Mother Teresa’s “Missionaries of Charity”. There is also the great educational system provided for and founded by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first canonized native-born U.S. citizen. This also includes the protection of the common individual against usury, the protection of the common artist, worker, the development of various guild systems, and the assistance of those in dire poverty through various mutual associations of voluntary aid.

We should then not turn to any “political messiah” or even exclusively to politics for the solution of those things most important in life. No politician or “political decision” at large will solve the political or even social problems of our day and age. I then once again propose a different apolitical solution that works only in so far as it is based on Him who can save; namely Christ and His Church. It is only through Catholic Action that we can have such real solution. A solution that truly transforms society and not merely tries to fix it or conserve it. This indeed is authentic Catholic Social Teaching and I would propose Distributism as its expression par excellence.

Footnotes

Arturo Ortiz
Arturo Ortiz is a young Catholic writer who is discerning the priesthood with the Fraternity of Saint Peter. He is the chief editor of Walking In the Desert, a traditional Catholic publication. He often writes about society and culture, economics, history, liturgy, and apologetics, and is also a frequent contributor to Church Militant.

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6 Comments

“Can you be more specific as to what you are advocating in this article?”
“are you advocating a theocracy like the Holy Roman Empire where the values of Catholic faith are enforced through the laws of the state? Or are you advocating people abandon political solutions and focus on living out their faith? Or something else?”

Thank you Paul for your genuine comment and questions. I am sorry if the article seemed a bit vague in regards to the thesis. I do have to acknowledge that this article was intentionally meant to be a bit general and broad but not necessarily vague. It was meant to be a type of “first principles” article in the sense of getting to the fundamentals of what Catholic Action is and of what the right Christian framework would be for a State. I think what made this article a bit vague is that I was writing about two specific subjects which are a bit distinct yet related for the sake of this article.

Catholic Action has been a social as well as religious movement that is inherently part of the Christian Faith put into social practice. It was a movement that has been encouraged by the Church throughout its history and which was very popular around the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was a movement of lay people in which they took part of the life of the Church in public society by bringing Catholic Social teaching into practice. It was an a-political movement in the sense that the movement transcended politics and was above all other things an explicitly religious movement that was put into social practice.

At the same time I was using this article as an opportunity to discuss traditional Catholic social teaching regarding the nature of the State and its relationship with the Church. By no means am I calling for a theocracy in the sense of religious and secular power being held in a single individual as was the case for example in Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire “Caeseropapism”. I am indeed however promoting the belief that the Christian ideal as held by the Catholic Church is for public society to both uphold the Christian religion as the one true religion and furthermore to grant tChrist and His Church full liberality and profession in public society. That obviously means that an ideal State would be formed by the Church’s social teachings as well as morality.

I would definitely not want Catholics or any other like minded Christian to abandon the public sphere and hence politics as well. On the contrary politics is very important and I highly encourage Catholics and other non-Catholics of good will to enter the political arenas as a means by which to safeguard whatever fragments of Christendom still exist and to promote a truly Catholic Christian culture. Before we can do this however we have to first obviously understand and be properly formed in the fundamentals of Catholic social teaching (one of the most fundamentals which is the doctrine of the social reign of Christ the King), as well as to be virtous men who live out the faith. Besides this it should also be pointed out that we can’t merely stay on a political level alone but must also transcend it which I believe is what the movement of Catholic Action does and addresses social issues by religious means. So in other words this article takes a both/and approach to politics and social issues.

Arturo, thanks for clarifying. I’m all for “Catholic Action” as you’ve described it as an a-political social movement. I also think most Americans generally are on board with the government informed by “Judeo-Christian” ethics. But once you start using the phrase “Catholic State” and say its goal would be to “uphold the Christian religion as the one true religion,” I think a line is crossed.

Ironically, I think the idea a “Catholic State” is contrary to Catholicism. God gives us free will to choose whether to follow him or not. A lot could be done in the name of “uphold[ing] the Christian religion as the one true religion” which would infringe on the freedom God intended for us.

Richard Aleman

August 24, 2016 at 8:30 AM

Confessional states have been lauded by the Church historically, and it follows because the State must find its moral source and authority from somewhere other than an ambiguous appeal, whether Christian or secular. It certainly does not infringe on the liberty God intended for us because above that liberty there exists the rights of God. As Leo wrote, “the State, constituted as it is, is clearly bound to act up to the manifold and weighty duties linking it to God, by the public profession of religion.” He goes further in his applause, “There was once a time when States were governed by the philosophy of the Gospel. Then it was that the power and divine virtue of Christian wisdom had diffused itself throughout the laws, institutions, and morals of the people, permeating all ranks and relations of civil society. Then, too, the religion instituted by Jesus Christ, established firmly in befitting dignity, flourished everywhere, by the favor of princes and the legitimate protection of magistrates; and Church and State were happily united in concord and friendly interchange of good offices.”

Arturo, thanks for writing this article. I just found Distributist Review today and so a lot of the terms and concepts you mention here are new to me including “distributism,” “Christian Democracy” and “Catholic Action.” Can you be more specific as to what you are advocating in this article?

When you say “Catholic Action… views the Catholic State as the ideal” are you advocating a theocracy like the Holy Roman Empire where the values of Catholic faith are enforced through the laws of the state? Or are you advocating people abandon political solutions and focus on living out their faith? Or something else?

Arturo, this is a great article to read. Thanks for posting the article as well as the excerpts from John Medaille. I do not know much of U.S. History of presidential elections along with state and local elections. However, I hope that many American Catholics will understand that life here on earth is only temporal and that this nation alone will not survive with the way our political and economic systems function. A Catholic state, as stated here, or as some call it, a Catholic confessional state would most ideal, it’s just a question of how to convince citizens of return to moral order as well as a more fair economic system that is based on Christian principles. Power alone must be towards God, as you rightly indicate in the article. No doubt our American society would change very much if many more of our brethren Catholics would form a better intellect of what it means to live as a Catholic and understand the purpose of economic activity for the betterment of all of us. God bless.

[…] bringing back the long neglected Christian movement known as Catholic Action which I write about in The Catholic Solution to a Social and Political Problem. Society and Western Civilization needs the Catholic Faith more than ever if it is to survive a […]

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